Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.

Church Bulletins, how to create simple, clear layouts for them

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I've often said in my seminars that church bulletins are the most effective piece of Christian literature printed today outside the Bible.

I say that because they are often the first piece of Christian literature visitors to your church from our post-Christian world see.

They must clearly communicate what is going on and the basics of the faith or people will be confused and walk away. Below is a PDF of a number of simple examples:

Church bulletins are the first face of your church and the Christian faith to visitors. This section will help you make clear and simple ones that communicate effectively.
Church bulletins are the first face of your church and the Christian faith to visitors. This section will help you make clear and simple ones that communicate effectively.

PLEASE read the many other articles in this section on bulletins for additional specific advice on what to include.

This PDF will give you some ideas for how to create your own very simple layouts and basic bulletins. To download it, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Little details are the most important part of your communications

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PDF of an article on the importance of the little details in your church communications
PDF of an article on the importance of the little details in your church communications

The little things are the most important part of your communications because they are the links that actually connect people with the events and ministries of your church.

They are also the most boring, tedious, and difficult parts to include in a communication piece whether it is on paper or online. We'd much rather work on fun illustrations or polishing our catchy marketing slogans or brilliant headlines. As important as these parts of communication creation are, you can have the most brilliant headline and the most appealing images ever, but if people don't know when something starts, how to get there, and if child care is provided—chances are they won't show up.

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And don't expect anybody today to "call the church office for more information." Folks don't take the time to do it and even if they do after being shuttled around through voice mail, they may leave not thinking nice things about the church and certainly not planning to come to an event that might have changed their eternity.

Include the little details in your communications, it can have an impact well worth the hard work it takes to get the details gathered up and put into your communications.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

Also look at the article and PDF on REPORTER FORMS. It will give you a practical way to collect all the information you need.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Reporter form, a great tool to enable you to get all the information you need for your communications

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Reporter form, a great tool to enable you to get all the information you need for your communications
Reporter form, a great tool to enable you to get all the information you need for your communications

As a church communication creator, the value of the information that you put out in print, on the web, in your bulletins, newsletters, and other communications is only as good as of completeness of the communication information you are given.

To help you get the complete information, a form like this can be a life-saver. Often people don't give you the information they need because they forget or don't realize how important it is (and sometimes they are just onery, but this form can't help with that).

This form gives them a checklist to fill out and then you can take the information to create the communications you need. Instead of asking people to write things of a specific length or style, you have the facts and you can do up what you need. It might seem at first that this takes longer, but it doesn't and you have far fewer misunderstandings and problems over what might have been left out if you do it this way.

Also, sometimes it is easier to call people and interview them for the necessary information and a form like this enables you to have something to fill out while you are on the call.

Click here to download the PDF.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Church jargon can sabotage your outreach effort—examples and solutions

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Jesus commanded us to reach our world and most churches make a serious effort to do that. At the same time a  survey by George Barna shows 91% of unchurched people feel the church is not sensitive to their needs. Why is that happening if our primary calling is to reach them for Jesus? I think part of the answer is in our church jargon in our publications.

Jargon encounter:

An unchurched person walks into your church. Maybe a friend invited them, maybe they were simply lonely and wanted to be around people on Sunday morning. We know that they have a god-shaped vacuum inside. We know their hearts are restless until the rest in Jesus. We know the Holy Spirit is at work to convict them of their need for salvation. They sit down in the quiet minutes before the service and they will read anything we put in their hands.

What do we give them? The church bulletin.

What does it say? Try to put yourself in the place of a total stranger who may not have grown up in a church or ever read the Bible. Imagine your response.

Bulletin cover: often either picture of church, clip art, or color picture of scenery. Names of church staff, address, sometimes lists of other names of elders, board members, etc.

Possible response: Who are these people? I know what the church looks like, I walked into it, I'm sitting in it. Why a picture of it?

Inside the bulletin:

There may be an order of service...or maybe not, which means the person has no idea how long the singing will last, how long the service will last, what will happen, what they are supposed to do. If there is an order of service it may contain terms like:

Prelude songs or Introit

Congregational reading

Songs of praise

Hymns such as "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus", choruses: "Open the Eyes of My Heart, and Be Magnified" no words or page numbers given

Announcements (actual examples given):

"We are so glad for those who were able to come to the licensing Service for Rusty. I know you received a blessing from the Lord."

"AWANA GRAND PRIX RACES: Check in 11 am. Racing begins at 12 noon. There are racing divisions for: Chubbies, Sparks, Pals, Chums, Pioneers, Guards, and Leaders. "

"Moses had Aaron and Hur to hold his arms up. Would you be willing to join a pastoral prayer team to hold up our pastoral staff? Sign up on the Feedback Sheet."

"Upcoming events: Friend Day with Cathy McBride-November 4; Greater than Rubies-November 13; Caring Hearts Luncheon-November 28"

Possible response to all of the above that made little or no sense to the visitor reading it: What are these people talking about? As an outsider, I obviously don't belong here.

We often aren't aware of our jargon

We know we shouldn't use terms like justification and sanctification when we are first talking to unchurched folks, but we don't even see so much of our church jargon. The examples above are all out of real church bulletins and similar ones could be repeated thousands of times.

Our insider talk, terms and jargon permeates the initial printed pieces we give visitors telling them that this church is for those in the know only. We don't even see it, but they do and they don't come back.

Get visitor input

Look at your bulletin and other publications that are first seen by visitors and ask the Lord to help you see them as a visitor would. One eye-opening way to find this out is to hire (that's right, pay them a decent hourly wage) to look at your church bulletin and simply ask them to put into their own words what you are saying.

Don't ask them if they like it or if it makes sense or anything like that—many folks are honestly nice and they will lie to you to make you feel good. But if you ask them to resay what they just read and you find them stumbling around and saying things like: "Well, I think here you are talking about...um....little kids? Or what is promise land again? Or what are the "Becomers" becoming?....or I think you're supposed to put a little key code (this really was the case in one church) on this slip of paper and then tear it off and put it into a box in the back if you want to participate in a beach clean up...is that right?...." If this is the sort of response you get, if what you want people to do, isn't immediately clear, you might want to work on your communications to improve their clarity.

Paying people to test and see if they can use your website is a very big deal today; it's the  world of "usability testing." Though I agree this is extremely important to do if you want your website to be useful it is just as important to make sure your church bulletin is useful.

Start by being clear with your welcome

Ask yourself what would make you feel welcome? What would be confusing to you if you were a complete stranger to church?

At the least, as part of welcoming people, tell them what is going on. On pages of announcements, in addition to explaining the event, give complete information such as beginning and ending times, locations, contact phone numbers, etc. In addition, to let guests and infrequent attenders know they are welcome at events outside Sunday morning, you  might consider some sort of heading such as:

Church Family Activities: below are all of the events taking place in our church this week. We realize that newcomers might not be familiar with all the programs or people. Please call xxxxxxx, email xxxx or visit our website xxxx for explanations and more complete descriptions. We welcome you and invite you to participate in all of the activities of our church.

A brief notice such as that at least acknowledges that strangers might be in the congregation.

Don't assume understanding, follow up

Follow up with some visitors-especially those who are new to church and ask them what would make them feel more welcome, what would they like to see in the initial literature they get when they come in the door.

Some churches send out postcards asking for feedback along with a welcome letter. A number of churches in my seminars have found this very helpful. I personally think it's really irritating and bothersome, but it has worked well for quite a few churches. Others do casual phone calls and ask for feedback; others wait until someone is part of a membership class and then as part of it they ask how welcome they felt as visitors, what made sense and what did not. Bottom line here is that different methods work for different styles and types of churches. Try different ones until you find something that works well for you.

However we decide to do follow up after we do it, make some changes and then ask for responses again. We have incredible communication tools and technology and we may need to fine tune our communications and get rid of our jargon so visitors feel the church cares for them as much as the Savior who died for them.

Don’t just change the music! or why you might need different bulletins for different services as well

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A "seeker-friendly service" involves more than a praise band and upbeat singing. If you really want to reach a variety of people, you may need to change more than the music. Your worship guide or church bulletin may also need some changes.

In recent years many churches have realized that not everyone likes the same sort of music when they worship God. After fussing and fighting for a number of years it seems like churches realize that they don't need to totally change the style of music for the entire church. A much more peaceful and positive response in many churches has been to have different styles of music and worship at various times on Sunday mornings and Saturday night.

In addition to changing the music, if churches are serious about communicating to specific audiences within their churches, the style of communications given to them needs to change also. Many of the announcements and basic messages can be the same, but some modification in design, typeface, illustration style, and some of the content can make a world of difference in communicating effectively  to your specific audience.

If you use the same bulletin for everyone, it would be like expecting everybody to get their news from the Wall Street Journal. Some folks prefer the Journal, but others read USA TODAY and others prefer televised news on CNN or social media. The same news is reported each day, but it's modified to the tastes of each audience. The core of your message and the truth of the gospel remain the same but you might want to modify your presentation in terms of your communication styles.

How this might work out in practice

Let's use as an example a church of about 1200, that has a new pastor with a desire to reach his community for Christ. The church has three services, each of which is designed to appeal to a specific group of people. Below are some possible suggestions for church communications for three different kinds of services. First I'll describe the services, the target audience for each one, and then some suggestions for how you might modify the worship guide or bulletin for each one.

The church services:

The 8:00 service is very traditional, designed for folks who have been coming to the church for many years. The service is the one the majority of the senior adults attend.

The 11:00 service is the contemporary service. The worship leader is part of a contemporary Christian rock group and the music includes a drummer, keyboard, guitars and piano where the worship leaders sits and sings. The motto for this service is:  the 11th Hour: it's never too late for truth, god and rock and roll.

Yes, the word, "God" is in lower case-that alone offends some of the folks from 8 am, but seems normal to an age group where many music covers have all the words in lower case type and text messaging is all done in lowercase.

The 9:30 service not only meets at an in-between time, but the format of the service is a mixture of traditional and contemporary. It's the service attended primarily by families.

Suggestions for the Bulletin or Worship Guide for each service

8:00: a traditional service needs a traditional bulletin.

Whatever your church has been doing in the past is probably primarily what you'll want to do for these folks. When a church is making lots of other changes in services, times, and music there is no need to change the traditional bulletin just for the sake of making changes.

Some possible modifications:

-Consider using larger type that is easier to read for an audience primarily made up of seniors. 12 point would be the smallest you'd want to use and you might even try 13 or 14 points. A little extra leading (the space between lines) makes text easier to read also.

- A serif typeface, (something like New Times Roman or Cambria) is more traditional in look and will probably be preferred by this audience.

-Don't use too many typefaces or a variety of wild and crazy typefaces for this group.

-Section of prayer requests can be more detailed and is often expected by these people who are often the prayer warriors of the church.

11:00 a contemporary service needs a contemporary bulletin

If the person doing the traditional bulletin doesn't like contemporary, Christian rock music, they may not be the best person to design this bulletin-it helps to love the life-style or at least appreciate it to create publications for it.  The inspiration for this bulletin would come from online music covers, publications that appeal to that audience, television channels such as MTV, and the graphic style it uses.

Some possible modifications:

-There are two overall options you could consider for this group. One would be a very colorful look or the other option would be a totally black and white look.

-For either one use lots of images and less words.

-Make the church websites or sections of the web site ea for more information and make the website, Facebook, Twitter or other social networking connections printed on the bulletin.

-Use contemporary typefaces for the majority of the publication. Clean, sans serif faces such as Ariel, Eras, Franklin Gothic (actually any of the "Gothic" styles would work well) or Verdana could work well. Combinations of the regular type with bold have a contemporary look. Many contemporary publications use type at smaller sizes, 9 or 10 points with lots of leading (space between the letters).

-For some groups or advertisements, try the grunge typefaces. These are the typefaces that look like the letters are broken.

-Don't use funky, old-fashioned clip art here. Either use something contemporary like Art Parts, or leave it off altogether. Photographs , especially just a few used more as graphic illustrations can work well with this kind of design.

9:30 a family-oriented service needs a family bulletin

This bulletin or worship guide would probably have lots more information than the others. It's important to remember that the bulletin for this group is key to involving them in additional activities for the church. Also, what you put in this bulletin will let families know how you feel about children at your church.

Some possible modifications:

-In addition to the worship guide or bulletin itself, consider producing a children's bulletin in addition to the one for adults. A fun sheet with Bible games, a place to doodle and perhaps a short lesson, plus a pencil to write with can be a great gift to parents as they come in with their children.

-Be sure to give complete details on all the programs in the church for families.

-For special events, create bulletin inserts designed to be posted on the refrigerator. Many churches now call these mini-billboards, Refrigerator Reminders, because they know for a busy family, if it is on the refrigerator, the family will remember to attend. If the event is just part of a list in a bulletin, it will probably stay in the Bible til next week and the event will be missed.

-For typefaces, Bookman is the classic typeface for children's materials (that's the one the Dick and Jane books were set in), Century is a very easy to read typeface for adults and kids. Comic Sans is a fun face for special events advertisements for kids. A variety of typefaces for different sections or advertisements can work well for this group.

-This would be the bulletin for fun clipart and graphics. Colorful, family oriented pictures of people on the cover would also work well for this group.

There are so many ways you can modify your publications to better serve the various groups you are trying to reach. The above ideas hopefully will serve as inspiration starting points. To figure out what will work for you, observe who attends what service. If possible spend a little time finding out what publications they like to read. Look at them and design your publications in the same style.

Possibly a time to develop a communication team

Yes, it is a lot of work to do different bulletins for each group. This might be an opportunity to recruit and develop a communication team. The members could be volunteers who would take the basic church information and adapt it for each group. From working on the bulletin, the team members might expand to helping create other communications for each group.

If you take the time to do these modifications, it will be one way to illustrate to your people a picture of our caring Lord, who loves each of us individually and who has an individual plan for every life.